AN: Hoo boy, it's me again, back with the misadventures of Grimm Shady. That joke took longer than I'm willing to admit to think of. Anyway, yes, the madness continues. The most important meal of the day, other than lunch, dinner, second breakfast, supper, etc.
Question time again? But of course! What is breakfast for a Grimm? Normally it would be rocks and fear. Important parts of a healthy meal for Grimm. Not filling or flavourful, how will our precious little Grimmamon bun take to new food? Why do I ask questions I'm going to answer anyway? No more questions, only dreams now.
Important thing: From writing this chapter, weekly updates seem possible, however I do want to add in history chapters for Apathy. Right now I'm thinking 2-4 normal chapters then 1 of his history. Characters with little to no back story are fine, but Apathy has a lot of back story and it would feel cheap to not explain it.
Ended up being far longer than I expected, but I wanted to get initiation out of the way in one chapter. It just kept going... Ah well, more words are more good?
This time, I'm not sorry.
The worst part of sleep, in Apathy's opinion, was waking up. Returning to consciousness always brought with it problems. Noisy Grimm, nosey Hunters, the occasional animal rousing him by accident. So it was surprising to the lazy sack of bones and nightmares that he only had to wake up four times before it was morning. A personal best, even though he thought it was three times too many to be awoken.
Fortunately for those who had woken him, two with over loud snoring, and one who had passed him to reach the bathroom, he was preoccupied this morning so wouldn't be taking his well deserved and definitely measured vengeance upon them. To everyone who saw him as he rose from his sleeping bag, his expression brought nerves and a sliver of fear. For he was smiling. If the twist of his lipless mouth in a slight upwards manner could be called a smile, seeming forced and more like a grimace than an expression of happiness.
The reason for this ungodly look on his face would confuse anyone who knew. Breakfast. Everyone knows the Grimm have no need to eat, and Apathy knows this too, but much like sleeping he does so purely for pleasure. Taste was an experience he relished, not as much as terrifying humans or sleep, but in a life such as his, it was the little things that meant the most. Passing by an overexcited ginger that was talking at something that felt wrong he headed to the locker rooms, thankfully not needing to shower before changing back into his combat outfit. Having almost no normal biological functions could be advantageous, even if sometimes he wished for a few of them. The useful ones, like wounds repairing themselves over time with no input, and having hair. Gods how he wished he had hair. He knew he could rock any style, if he only had the chance.
Freshly dressed, and having given his skull mask a quick check over, he strolled out of the ballroom with two objectives in mind. First and foremost was sating his hunger, however imaginary it was, and second was finding that auraless moron before it was too late. "Hopefully I can kill two birds with one stone... Oh, right... Gotta ask Ruby for help..."
He paused in the hall and looked around slowly, still being given a wide berth by the other students, looking for either a streak of red, or a shock of blonde, in the throng of teenagers parting around him. After a full minute of fruitless searching he resumed his journey. They weren't in the hallway, so they would either already be at breakfast, or still getting ready. Either way, he wanted to eat, so he could catch them in the dining room. It would probably be a lot easier. After all, what's the worst that could happen?
Apathy felt a shudder run through his body, from the bottom of his feet all the way to the top of his head. "Murphy has been summoned... I'm doomed..." he thought suddenly very apprehensive about entering the hall. Desire to taste the food of Beacon overcame his better judgement, and he staggered into the room, crimson lights scanning the noisy tables. Nobody had jumped up to attack him. Nobody screamed Grimm for once. Nobody seemed to care.
Apathy's apprehension grew by the second. He moved at a sedate pace, attempting to avoid drawing attention to himself as he made a beeline for the buffet style spread of breakfast foods. He wanted to try it all. He looked over the selection, making notes to himself as he did so. "Cereal, overly grainy... Fruit, too basic... Toast. Enough said... Cookies... Wait, breakfast cookies!?"
He stopped moving entirely, standing stock still as he processed this new development. Having come to the conclusion that yes, those were chocolate chip cookies, for breakfast, he grabbed a tray from the provided pile. Moments later he turned away, a veritable mountain of cookies before him, and a decidedly unGrimm like bounce to his step. "This is the life. Should have come here years ago."
If there was one thing Ruby didn't understand, other than algebra, and why Beacon had a mandatory history class, and why her dad wouldn't buy her any comics from Mistral, and what a baker's dozen was... Okay, so maybe Ruby didn't understand a lot of things, but the important thing right now was that she didn't understand why Yang didn't enjoy waking up in the morning. After all, Ruby loved the morning! It was when all the best things happened, like showers, or breakfast. How could anyone not like that!?
But, contrary to Ruby's energetic self, Yang spent most of her mornings in a zombie like trance, barely reacting to anything before her shower and a coffee. Ruby didn't mind though. She had enough pep in her step for more than two people, so she could be the Ruby AND the Yang until her big sis was awake enough to be herself again. After waiting for what Ruby was still convinced was far too long a time for a shower, she and Yang, now graduated to three quarters awake, made their way to the hall together.
Ruby was a firm believer that a good breakfast was the right mix of simple, filling, and tasty foods, so the wide array of options Beacon offered was perfect to her. With a tray of toast and strawberry jam, a few cookies, and a tall glass of milk she quickly looked around the hall, spotting Apathy in only a few seconds, thanks to his surprisingly shiny skull. His back was to her, and she could see he was sitting opposite a boy with messy blond hair, who clearly had no idea how to deal with the talking Grimm.
As she slipped between other benches on her way to join the two, she caught the tail end of the conversation they were having. "-Lieve me or not, just wait a few minutes. My friend is on her way, she can help explain, alright?"
"Good morning Appy!" Ruby almost cheered to her friend, sliding down on the bench beside him. She opened her mouth to say something else, but choked on her words seeing his tray only contained cookies. Rather than what she had planned on saying, she slammed her palms on the table and cried to the ceiling, "I knew Yang was lying that cookies weren't a breakfast food!"
Said lying sister who lies chose that moment to drop into the seat opposite Ruby, putting her next to the other blond. "Cookies aren't a breakfast food Rubes. A Grimm doing something is the opposite of normal." she says with an accusatory point at Apathy.
Red eyes flicked to Yang, then down to the circle of chocolatey goodness held between two clawed fingers. "Rude, but fair point." he says before tossing the cookie into his mouth and swallowing it whole, "Anyway, this is the kid I mentioned last night. Wanna introduce yourself Blondie?"
The boy swallowed nervously before steeling himself. "The name's Jaune Arc. Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue. Ladies love it." he said with confidence, being met with silent, questioning gazes from silver, lilac, and crimson eyes.
It was broken by the skull faced monster turning to Ruby. "You know what? Never gonna complain about people pointing weapons at me when I say hi. Anything, and I mean anything, is better than this much awkward." he says deathly seriously to her, the now named Jaune deflating at his response. He slumped further at her nodding, and Yang grunting an affirmative noise to the Grimm. "Okay, so. Jaune? Why in the fuck are you here with no aura?" he asks the boy, losing all levity with the serious subject.
Jaune blinked owlishly for a few seconds, then raised an eyebrow in confusion, "Without a what now?" he questioned the Grimm and two girls. This time, the silent response felt far heavier. This time it was broken by simultaneous shouts of "What!?" from the sisters, wide eyed and mouths agape at the idiot sitting with them.
"Let me explain why that answer means you should not be here. See these two?" Apathy says pointing to Ruby and then Yang, "If I took a swipe at either of them, it'd sting like a bitch, and then they'd hit back. I took a swipe at you, your insides would become intimately familiar with the outside. And my kind aren't known for massive physical strength." Ruby gave a slow nod, confirming what he told Jaune.
Under normal circumstances, the way the blood drained from Jaune's face in a mix of fear and nausea would have been pleasant to Apathy. But the sound of the kid's dreams shattering, along with the overwhelming negativity that flowed off him in waves, just made Apathy feel like a dick. Even without the extra Grimm senses, Ruby and Yang could feel it too, and were in the same penis shaped boat as he was. That metaphor added to the sick feeling in Apathy's metaphorical stomach.
"Look, kid... No. Jaune. If you stay here, you will die. No question about it." he tells the despondent blond, reaching into his jacket's inner pocket and producing his scroll, "But... If you want to do a job to do with Hunters, I can get you an interview with someone." he offers, hoping that helping the idiot out would settle down the feeling of guilt in him. He'd never felt guilty before. He didn't like it one bit.
Jaune looked up with a glimmer of hope in his eyes. "Will it... Will it help people to be heroes..?" he asks in a shaky voice, barely restraining the sadness at losing his dream.
"Definitely." Apathy confirms as he swiped through his contacts, holding his scroll towards Jaune once he found the right number. "Here. Call this guy, he makes combat uniforms for professional and trainee Hunters. Nice guy, tell him I gave you his number." he tells him with a shaky smile. Shaky in the literal sense, his mouth was not made for happy expressions. After a few beats of indecision, Jaune took out his own scroll and copied the number into it.
"Thanks... I... I guess this was... A stupid idea..." the blond mumbles, his eyes dropping to the half eaten bowl of cereal before him. "Guess I'll... Finish up and... Give him a call..?" he questions, getting nods and encouraging smiles from the sisters. He heaved a sigh and picked up his spoon, eating sedately but with a small kernel of relief inside. "Maybe it's for the best... I'd probably just get in their way..."
Apathy and the two girls finished before Jaune, all three giving words of encouragement as they left him to his breakfast. Apathy hoped it would work out for him. He didn't seem like a bad kid, and maybe in another life he would have been a Huntsman, even if in this one it just wasn't meant to be.
Rocket lockers, Apathy mused, made no sense whatsoever. He couldn't fathom why any Huntsman or Huntress would be somewhere that they required their weapon and not have it on their person. They were, however, a pretty cool concept in his opinion.
He checked over Rest before sliding it into his back holster, the weight a comfort as he collected his dust cartridges and normal dust round magazines. Silently thanking the tailor who made his combat uniform, he slotted his various forms of ammo into the pouches and pockets littering the inside of his jacket. After a final check he closed his locker and turned his head, taking a few moments to watch an overexcited ginger who was badgering something that was wrong. He knee there was something, or someone, that the girl was talking to, but there was just an area of wrong in the shape of a human. "Whatever the fuck that is, I want nothing to do with it." He allowed himself a shidddr of discomfort before turning away, his eyes being drawn to someone he recognized.
Deciding to be the bigger person, mentally as opposed to physically since everyone in the room was taller than the alabaster heiress, he walked over to her and the redhead she was talking at. He waited for the Schnee to finish her spiel to the tall redhead before he cleared his throat, "You got a moment?" he asks her, ignoring the other girl's shout of Grimm but felt he had to respond to the blade at his neck.
He looked at the girl, taking in her outfit and weapon before locking eyes with her. "You need a better designer. What the hell kind of protection does that outfit even give?" he asks, shaking his head and pushing the short sword down with one hand, internally chuckling at the confused expression the girl wore.
He returned his attention to his reason for interrupting them, tilting his head down to meet the icy blue eyes that glared at him. "I feel like we got off on the wrong foot. If we're going to be classmates for the next four years I'd prefer not to have any bad blood with anyone. Let me start over." he says, quickly straightening his jacket before holding a hand out to her. "Apathy Grimm, name and description." he kept his face neutral, figuring she would be more willing to agree if he was direct with her.
The girl huffed and crossed her arms, maintaining her glare in silence for almost a minute before she deigned to respond. "Weiss Schnee." she bit out sharply to him, "I concur with your assertion. Intra team tensions would be untenable in the long run. But I would ask you not to approach me without reason after initiation." she added still viewing him with suspicion. He was a Grimm after all, and everyone knew the Grimm were monsters.
Apathy thought for a scant second before nodding to her. "Understood. Good luck in initiation." he says before looking at the redhead again, his internal chuckle from earlier becoming an internal laughing fit. "Sorry for bothering you. Later." he says nodding to her before strolling out of the locker room.
"That sword... Pretty advanced mechashift... Hopefully I can ask her about it later..."
The view from the cliff top of the Emerald Forest was, in a word, breathtaking. In his life, Apathy had been lucky enough to find some of the best views in all of Remnant. But looking out over the verdant canopy that stretched off to the horizon may just have been the best he had found.
He would have liked to spend all day just looking out into the distance. He was kept from sinking fully into his thoughts, however, by the Headmaster's explaination of the initiation. Ozpin was a strange one, in his mind. Unkempt silver hair, that he was sure took time to style just right every morning, and a deep green suit did not an imposing figure make. The glasses were the worst part to the Grimm. They were tiny, how were they meant to help with anything?
He was letting his mind wander again. He realized this and quickly tuned back in, not wanting this to be a repeat of the previous night's confusion. Thankfully, Ozpin was still going.
"That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years." "What!?" Ruby's voice interrupted, but the man kept going like nobody had spoken. "After you've partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path, or you will die."
"Oh boy, killing Grimm... Getting a headstart already." Apathy's face grew into a twisted approximation of a grin at the news they would have to fight.
"You will be monitored and graded for the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path, containing several relics. Each pair must take one, and return to the top of the cliff. You will guard that item, and your standing, and we will grade you appropriately.." he paused for a moment to scan his eyes over the potential students. "Are there any questions?"
Apathy lazilly raised one of his hands. "The hell is a landing strategy?" he asked, hearing the others starting to be launched one by one from the plates they stood on.
Ozpin cracked the tiniest of smiles before raising his mug. "Improvise." he tells him, a split second before Apathy was launched and he sipped his coffee. He chuckled at the rapidly quieting cry of "Fuck you too!"
"That never gets old." Ozpin muttered to his deputy, turning to the stern blonde woman, and seeing her raised eyebrow. "They all signed the waivers Glynda. Don't give me that look."
Spinning through the air was not a particularly elegant way to fly. Then again Apathy was of the firm belief that if he was meant to fly, he would have been spawned as a Nevermore. Or maybe a Lancer. He always thought those giant wasp things looked cool.
"Alright... So... Landing strategy... Technically crashing is a landing strategy... Would probably hurt like a bitch though..." he thought, twisting to be facing the ground properly and drawing Rest. He aimed straight down, rotating the chamber to the third slot, the red lines of Rest glowing green now. He waited another few seconds of free falling before he pulled the trigger, barely ten feet above the tallest trees he was careening towards.
A whirlwind burst to life from Rest, carving a clear hole through the canopy as the recoil sent him into a spin again and slowed him to the point where when he hit the ground, he only carved a relatively shallow furrow into the dirt in his long slide to a stop.
Apathy leaned forwards, clasping his ankles and screaming at the ground. He didn't break anything, but he was absolutely right: That hurt like a bitch.
It took a few minutes for the pain to bleed away into a dull ache, but once it had Apathy started walking. He could taste the Auras of the nearest students, but he had more important things to take care of than finding a partner. There were Grimm in the forest, noisy gods damn Grimm. The smile he wore now fit the Grimm perfectly. It was the smile of a man on a mission to kill everything he found. His fingers twitched and trembled with excitement, his eyes burning like a funeral pyre as he started to hunt.
There wasn't much Pyrrha wanted out of a partner. She hoped they would be skilled, and studious like her, but the most important thing was that they didn't see just the Invincible Girl, but saw her for who she was. "Easier said than done." she thought bitterly, her mind going back to how Weiss approached her. At first she had hoped that the heiress would be able to relate, but that hope had been dashed less than a full day in.
Thankfully her thoughts were interrupted before they could spiral out of control. The familiar staccato of gunfire and the distinctive howl of Beowolves. A chance for a partner, and with the continued bark of a rifle letting her know there was no chance of it being Weiss, she wasted no more time. Breaking into a sprint towards the sounds of combat, she let a small smile come to her lips, Miló unfolding inding into it's spear form in her right hand as she slid Akúo into place on her left arm. She decided to stay back at first and watch, wanting to make sure her partner knew what they were doing.
She noticed that the gunfire had stopped but could still hear the howling and... Laughter? She slowed down as the laughter grew louder, sounding exuberant and joyful in the air. Pyrrha was brought to a cold stop on the edge of a torn up clearing. The pack of Beowolves were scattered on the ground, dissipating into nothingness. All except one, one being held by the owner of the laughter. The Grimm that had been in the locker room. She thought it called itself Apathy, a name that right now made no sense to her as even from the side she could see it's face splitting grin and hear the happiness in it's laughter.
The suited Grimm lanced out a hand, then swung it to the side bisecting the final Beowolf. It's laughter slowed as it threw the held it held into a tree. Pyrrha started taking a step back, not even daring to breathe lest the monster before her chose a new target. It was all for naught. Before she could take a single step it whipped around to face her, bloody orbs of hatred boring into emerald eyes. She froze, a cold terror welling up in her even as she raised Miló and Akúo to defend herself. The silence stretched on, Pyrrha fighting through her fear at the monster she was staring down to still her trembling hands and let her plant her feet in the stance that was ingrained in her mind.
Apathy let out a long, wheezing breath, black smoke coiling from the corners of his mouth. After the exhale he straightened up, lowering his claws to his sides. "Damn... Was hoping to... Get a few more kills... Before I got a partner..." he was breathing heavily, even though he lacked both lungs and the capacity to be exhausted, but he liked to pretend. He did have limited stores of energy, but the flash of fear from Pyrrha had been enough to top him up for now.
Pyrrha slowly lowered her guard, returning Akúo to her back but keeping Miló ready. "I... I suppose we'll be... Sticking together then... That's..." she paused, putting on her best Invincible Girl smile, even more brittle than it usually was, "That's grand..."
The Grimm snorted and shook it's head as it approached her. "Sure. I'll pretend you sounded convincing. Apathy Grimm, short, sweet, rolls off the tongue. Ursa love it." it said while extending a hand to her.
"Well... I did ask for a partner who would see me for me... I doubt the Grimm follow the tournament circuit... You get what you wish for..." she mused while taking it's hand and shaking once before releasing the uncomfortably cold claw. "Pyrrha. Pyrrha Nikos." she says giving another PR smile to the monster.
"Mistralian? Exotic. Any idea which way is north?" it asked stepping over half of a Beowolf, turning it's head in a slow, deliberate way. It was... Unsettling to watch. Pyrrha decided the quicker they were finished the better and started walking what she thought was north, motioning the Grimm to follow her. It did so, but kept turning it's head which had started giving Pyrrha the creeps. Even unable to see it she could hear the popping and clicking of it's neck.
"I take it back... This is far worse than Weiss..."
Unfortunately for the reluctant partners, Murphy was a vindictive prick, and Pyrrha's innocent internal grumbling had resulted in them running for their lives. It turns out that what can go wrong for a pair of trainee Hunters during their entrance exam includes being chased by an Elder Grimm. The Deathstalker didn't seem to care about the trees in it's way, or the dust rounds slamming into it's boney carapace, or the string of expletives being shouted at it.
If Apathy wasn't aware the gods had abandoned him long eno, he would have blamed them for this. They hadn't even gone near the nest! This was some serious bullshit, and neither Apathy nor Pyrrha were enjoying themselves.
"Stupid fucking arthropod..." Apathy growled under his breath, leaping onto a boulder and chancing a quick turn to take a few shots at their pursuer. If it had bothered the Deathstalker, the creature didn't seem to show it.
"Well that was a waste of ammo... Gotta figure something out..." he thinks snarling to himself and glaring at the other Grimm, turning to keep running at Pyrrha's side. "Hey! Got any ideas to stop this fucker!?" he shouts over the crashing of broken trees at their backs, "Cause 'shoot it a lot' doesn't seem to be working!"
The sideways glare his partner gave was worthy of a small chuckle and little else. They needed some way to at least lose the Deathstalker before they reached the cliff, not to mention grabbing one of those relics would be hard with several tonnes of murder scorpion nipping at their heels.
"How good a shot are you!?" he shouted after a few seconds of silence from his partner, an idea forming in his head on how to, at the very least temporarily, stop the Grimm.
Pyrrha had to think for a few moments. "Better than most my age!" she yelled back after a slight debate on how to word 'excellent' without sounding too self aggrandizing.
"Good enough!" he shoved his free hand into the back of his jacket, the claw coming out with a few ice dust capsules. "This is all I got! One chance, on the count of three!" He spared a look over his shoulder at the Deathstalker, shaking up his dust capsules to get them primed.
"One!"
Pyrrha switched Miló to it's rifle form.
"Two!"
She half turned, settling Miló into one of the semicircular indents in Akúo.
"Three!"
With a twisting throw, Apathy launched the four capsules towards the ground ahead of the Deathstalker. Pyrrha racked them as they flew and fired a single shot, hitting one of the central capsules.
The chain reaction of ice dust explosions froze the Grimm's claws and front legs in place, a sheet of jagged ice coating it's face and up it's carapace almost reaching helfway along the giant.
The pair of Hunters in training didn't stop running when the monster was stuck in place, so neither witnessed the ice cracking, slowly but surely. They had bought themselves a few minutes, at least. A few minutes that was plenty enough time to reach the ruins, finding four others already there.
Apathy could recognize the mane of blonde as Ruby's sister, Yin or something like that. The ginger girl seemed somewhat familiar, but the boy in green with black hair, a strip of pink confusing him, and eyes the same pink he didn't recognize. Nor did he recognize the black haired girl, but as he passed he swore he heard her hiss at him. Weirdo. Probably from Mistral, everyone from there was a freak in his opinion. It may well have been hypocritical, but this glass house wasn't built by a fair Grimm.
He stumbled into the ruins and flicked his eyes across the pedastals waiting with... Chess pieces on top. When he had heard the word 'relic' he had assumed... Actual relics. Not a bunch of oversized game pieces in gold and black. With a sigh and muttered "Fuck it." he grabbed the closer of the two objects, tossing his gold took in the air a few times on his way back to the group. He was mildly surprised none of them had left, considering, well you know. Grimm?
He was also surprised when he followed their tilted heads up and saw a giant Nevermore circling above them. "Seriously, what is with this place and huge Grimm? Must be something in the water. Brothers I'm glad I don't need to drink." He shook his head to clear the errant thoughts before they could get more off topic. He took his place in the line of students and scratched his chin. "Hey partner?" he asks keeping his eyes on the bird Grimm.
"Fifty lien says you can't hit the fucker in the eye." he smirked and raised his free hand in a finger gun, snapping his thumb down. "Boom. One less Grimm to bother us." It took a few clicks before anyone reacted, thankfully hat person was Pyrrha, and her reaction was to flick Miló around and put her eye to the scope. She didn't care for the money, but the challenge drew her in. She was Pyrrha Nikos, the Invincible Girl, and she would never back down from a challenge.
Apathy grinned and crouched down to watch her, "Yessss... Kill that fucking bird..." he snarled hungrily, black Grimmstuff dripping from his maw.
Pyrrha was about to take the shot before she noticed something on the Nevermore. She slid her scope over the bird, pausing on the object she had seen at the corner of her vision. It was two people hanging onto the creature. One of them she recognized as Weiss Schnee, the other a short, black haired girl, with a long red cape and a folded up weapon on her back.
"There are people on it." she announced to the others, lowering Miló with a slight frown. She couldn't risk it now, if she shot and hit home the pair could fall off and fall, but if she missed there was the slimmest chance she would hit one of the girls. It was a risk she wouldn't, couldn't, take. She raised the scope back to her eye, watching the pair to see if they needed help.
he only saw one person on the Grimm now. And not even a second after she started to question where the other girl had gone, she watched Weiss jump off the Nevermore, and saw her chance, turning quickly and snapping off a shot straight forthe Grimm's largest visible eye. It would have struck home, had the heiress' evacuation not made it turn down to track it's prey. If asked, Pyrrha would deny the string of curses that ran through her head, hidden behind a polite frown instead of airing her grievances. "Let's take a rain check on that bet partner. But hey, at least we're two for two on big Grimm pissing us off." her partner growled as he stood again, stuffing the relic into his jacket while drawing his weapon, "Guess we're murdering a giant today after all."
Apathy watched Ruby come down from the tree she had landed in, then flicked his attention to Weiss, noting she was jumping on glowing circles and shrugging a bit. When the final pair joined them, Ruby taking a moment to grab the last relic, they each turned to the trees where a sound of crashing and screeching was echoing from. "Ah, son of a bitch." he mutters with a groan, the Deathstalker bursting into the clearing cutting off one avenue of escape.
"Great! Now we can all die together." Blondie, maybe her name was Yard, declared cheerfully.
"Perhaps a tactical retreat is in order?" the pink eyed one suggested, holding a pair of daggers that looked to also be pistols. He sounded strangely calm given the circumstances, which may have been what they all needed, since nobody argued with him. The circling Nevermore had turned and dove towards them, pressing it's wings and arresting it's drop. With a powerful wingbeat it sent razor sharp feathers in a fan down at the group of students.
They took this as the sign to move, so they wasted no time in turning to flee, the group of eight managing to keep out of each others' way all the way until they broke through the trees. They found themselves before a ruined bridge over a ravine, the other side a sheer cliff they would be sitting ducks on if they tried to scale it. They didn't have enough time to plan, as the scorpion Grimm was only a few seconds behind them. Pyrrha turned, sliding Akúo into place, already holding Miló in it's short sword form. She deflected a claw from the monster, taking a few swipes at it's face and doing nothing but making it angrier.
The Deathstalker raised it's stinger and lanced it towards the Schampion, twin streaks of green and black slicing past the tail, the Grimm rearing back and hissing in a mix of rage and pain at them.
While the three worked to keep attention on themselves, the other five had broke for the bridge. They were too absorbed in watching the Deathstalker to notice another shadow skirting the edge of the fight. The Nevermore let out a screech before careening into the bridge supports, stone tumbling down into the ravine cutting them off from each other. Apathy grit his teeth, running to the edge of their section of bridge. "Can't make a jump that far... Need something to launch me..." he thought, trying to come up with some ay over. Unbeknownst to him, a certain hammer wielding ginger already had one.
The first he knew of this plan was the sound of metal shattering stone, and a shout of "Fire the Grimmapult!" This girl, Apathy decided while spinning through the air, catching glimpses of her riding her hammer across the gap, had to be on his team, if for no reason other than to do this again.
He landed with all the poise and grace one could expect of an ancient Grimm, which is to say, as a mass of flailing limbs and cursing. After a second to recover, and call the ground a bitch, he clambered to his feet just in time to watch hammer girl slam down on top of the Deathstalker, a pink explosion triggering from the head of her weapon, the recoil letting her avoid the Grimm's retaliation, it's stinger passing within inches of her. He noted the black haired girl was gone now, leaving four of them to deal with the beast.
Jogging to join Pyrrha, the other pair running over forming a line between the Grimm and the chasm. "We need a plan." he growled looking to his impromptu team. "Pyrrha, pink strip, think you can slice bits off if me and hammer keep it busy?" he asks, flicking Rest into the rifle mode and swapping out for a fresh magazine. Receiving nods, one confident and two unsure, he turned his head to his partner. "Well partner, guess we're killing it after all."
"I sure as hell hope we are anyway..."
With three other people at his back, Apathy felt confident he could let loose, breaking to the left as Hammer went right, him peppering the Deathstalker with lightning empowered dust rounds while grenades rained onto it's head. The pink smoke and ground shaking explosive power did far more to distract it, but the other two weren't sitting idle.
The black haired boy had spent the first few seconds observing, looking for any weaknesses he could aim for. The tail, he noted, was only armoured on the back. He burst into motion, running across the space between them and jumping when he was close enough, landing on the Grimm's back for a moment using it as a spring board to reach the tail. He latched on just below the stinger, one of his blades biting into the black flesh as the other unleashed a burst of magenta rounds into the thinnest part of the tail.
The response was quick and violent, it's tail flailing in the air managing to launch him off and into a tree. "Ren!" Hammer's voice cut through the clearing, the salvo of explosives that followed rocking the Deathstalker almost off it's feet.
Apathy saw Pyrrha trying to slice at the creature's face, holstering Rest and diving past her catching a claw against his arms. There was a sickening crack as the bones along his forearms snapped and he skid back, barely staying upright thanks to his back slamming against Pyrrhas. "Take the tail off!" he roars at her, throwing himself in again managing to catch one of the Deathstalker's eyes with his claw. The screech of pain it gave was music to his ears. Music he only got to enjoy for a moment before his ribs were shattered on a claw and he was launched much like pink strip, Ten he supposed, had been.
Pyrrha was frozen for a moment watching her partner be thrown like a ragdoll, turning away from a strike and launching Akúo in a curve, the sharpened shield edge slicing through the weakened tail and dropping the stinger through the Grimm's back. She snatched the returning shield from the air and hopped back. It was a good start, but the Deathstalker was still alive, and still pissed.
A croaky voice broke her thoughts away. "Pyrrha... Drop the hammer..." her beaten and broken partner hissed, still dragging himself out of the crater he had made. His eyes slid past her to the ginger with a grin. "Hammer girl!" he rasped to get her attention, pointing at Pyrrha, specifically her shield. "Fire the Grimmapult."
The face splitting grin he got in return almost matched his own for bloodthirsty. Pyrrha only had a moment to raise Akúo over her head, the hammer striking it and bursting away in a cloud of pink.
Far above them, lifting her hammer with a salute, the girl shot herself straight down at the Grimm, hitting home on her shiny orange target.
With a screeching and disintegrating elder Grimm on one side, and a massive drop on the other, the four walked back together, Ren collapsing on his face beside a sitting Pyrrha. Apathy staggered over with a manic grin, giving hammer girl a thumbs up. He was coated in dirt, bones all over his body broken, a chunk of his skull missing, but otherwise seeming unbothered.
Across from them, and unseen with their exhaustion, another elder Grimm had been dispatched by the other group of students, and with the falling of a headless Nevermore, both groups had reached the finish line. All that was left was... Climbing back up the cliff...
"Somewhere out there... The gods are laughing at me..."
The great hall seemed a lot more sparsely populated with only those who passed initiation present. Being the last students in gave them a perspective on just how fewer people there were now. Thankfully, this time Ozpin didn't start with a speech, instead explaining that whichever pairs had matching relics would become the teams.
The naming convention for the teams was a bit annoying to Apathy. Seriously, for one of them they just took the leader's name and added an -al to it! He couldn't spend too long considering how stupid that was as he hat to pay attention for being called up. He didn't have to wait as long as he expected to, Ozpin's voice reaching him over the polite applause the last team got.
"Pyrrha Nikos, Apathy Grimm, Lie Ren, and Nora Valkyrie. You collected the white rook pieces. From now on, you will be team GRVN(Grapevine), led by Apathy Grimm." the headmaster announced to a silent room.
The silence was broken as everyone, bar the headmaster, shared a cry of "WHAT!?"
The shouts were followed by several cracks, Apathy's damaged and broken bones reforming in an instant. Again there was silence, this time broken by the Grimm in question turning to the gathered students. "Do you have any idea just how much negativity you produced to do that!? Come on!" he shouts at them, throwing his hands up and turning to stalk off the stage, muttering under his breath. The rest of his team followed after a few seconds, the headmaster watching them as he sipped his coffee, the very picture of calm and collected.
He moved on to the final team, but Apathy and the rest of GRVN weren't paying attention. One of them was muttering about racists, with the other three coming to terms with the fact negativity could heal Grimm in large enough amounts. They thought that they knew about the Grimm.
They were starting to think they didn't know a damn thing.
AN: To answer an actual question: Yes, Jaune has left Beacon. Originally he was going to not be here at all, but I felt like changes in the past away from him wouldn't stop him trying for his dream. This is, I feel, a realistic way to get him to reconsider. Being told by a Grimm alone wouldn't be enough, but accompanied by someone who did go through combat school and can confirm just how important having an Aura is? I think he would see just how out of his depth he is. Feel like this is important for anyone who likes the fearless leader in their fanfics, he will show up again, but it will be him doing various odd jobs because why not?
A lack of Jaune will likely have a ripple effect on everything. Mainly me not needing to write a true to canon Jaune for however long this goes for, because as much as I enjoy Jaune fics, his canon character in the early Volumes irks me. Petty? Probably, character growth is important, but this is just more fun for me.
Also, remember to have small snacks between meals to ensure proper health.